Young Writers Society

Orelia, 7:40 PM, lunchroom.

I walked into the lunchroom, looking for that Nolan kid. I spotted Dawno, talking to some boy. I walked closer. Maybe that was him.
"...I want you and Mr. Bishop in my office. Tomorrow. Together. You can bring one person to help you, but only one. Choose wisely, Mr. Lehnsherr. I have a feeling I know who Mr. Bishop would bring."
So that was Nolan. This was the perfect opportunity! I could prove myself, make a friend, learn something about Dawno... I waited a few minutes, watching him and the girl next to him talk. She obviously had a crush, but I didn't care. I walked over and sat down on his other side. He looked at me, partially surprised and partially annoyed. The girl didn't look amused either. "Do I know you?" he asked. I smiled sweetly. "No, you don't. I'm Orelia, Orelia Carmeline." I said, holding eye contact until his eyes flashed. He knew something was up. "Nolan." He greeted coldly. "If you'll excuse me..." he said, turning partially back. "Wait. Dawno said you could bring someone with you. And you're friend here-" I looked at the girl "-said something about spying. I'm a time bender. I think I could help you out."

Dreamy, your timestamp can't be right. Check Lume's previous timestamp - 7.47. So it can't be 7.40.

Nolan Lehnsherr - Cafe, First Day of Class, 7.53 PM - Level 2.4

"Do I know you?" Nolan's face didn't betray him. On the outside, he seemed friendly, charming and ready with a smile. Like always. But honestly, who was this girl?

And when she smiled it sent a chill down his spine. He had no idea what kind of smile that was supposed to be but it was creepy.

"No, you don't. I'm Orelia, Orelia Carmeline."

Nolan politely held her gaze but she fought too hard to keep it. Something was up.

"Nolan Lehnsherr." He smiled again, for Mother's sake. Thank God she drilled these formalities into him. "I'm afraid I'm rather busy right now, Orelia, but if you want to -"

"Wait. Dawno said you could bring someone with you. And your friend here said something about spying. I'm a time bender. I think I could help you out."

A time bender? Nolan's curiosity was piqued, not that he'd admit. He was still with Alexis, and curious as he might be, he wouldn't dump her for Orelia. Orelia was...like Dawno. There was something incredibly off about the two of them.

"Orelia. I'm sure you could help me but I'm definite we can postpone this talk until later. I'm a bit busy right now."

"Busy...Yeah I guess you kind of are."

Thank God for persuasion powers. Alexis was already seething and Nolan felt the room temperature rise by a good bit. Not to mention he smelled smoke. "And besides, didn't you promise to meet your roommate in your dorm five minutes ago? You're running late. You should go."

Orelia's eyes widened. "You're right! I have to go. Bye!" And she ran off towards the Dorms.

The smell of smoke disappeared almost immediately. Nolan breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't going to get burned. Not today. But Alexis seemed to have gotten tenser, and she appeared to be starting to withdraw into her shell again.

He couldn't have that.

"Alexis...You heard Mr. Dawno talking to me, didn't you?"

She remained tight-lipped and merely nodded.

"I need a partner. For tomorrow." He made sure to look her in the eye, and he prayed to God she would accept.

Bart- 8:30pm- Tuesday(finally, huh?)- Dorm A5

The buzzer didn't even phase me. I let the ringing cut the silence, and turn into plain white noise. to adjust to the noise. I didn't get to do any of those things. There was a short, ear piercing metal on metal grinding, before the loud, ear shattering, banging. I looked over to see Kumo hanging over me, her sword was hanging out of my dresser, with the alarm clock sparking in scraps. I looked at her frustration, and got up and walker right away from her. Bolt sprinting to catch me.

I had class soon, so I decided to get right into the shower. It was a painful experience. Though Bolt had super charged my regeneration, the wounds were still raw, my eye was the worst. As I spread the shampoo, I had to constantly wince as the suds ran over it. After the unpleasant washing, I quickly dried myself making small sparks evaporate the water away. I still had twenty minutes till class, so I dashed over to the cafe.

I joined the second year speedsters, as we all inhaled our respective meals. I didn't see Zeke there, I hoped he would come with me, but I had a back up plan. At a ten to, the cafe began to empty out, and even the speedsters ran off for their class, speed training. I went for a quick second breakfast, before sprinting over to Super Power channeling.

The place was packed when I got there, I think half our year was in the room. I spotted Zeke sitting against the wall. Waving I walked over, but he was gone before I blinked. I guess he was keeping away from me for now. Hopefully for now, at least.

Corda - A Dorms - Tuesday - 3:00 AM

Corda stood outside Room A2 hoping that either Nolan was (a) awake or (b) not a grumpy waker. She also hoped his roommate stayed asleep as she rapped on the door, just hard enough to be heard by the room's occupants, but not so hard it echoed in the empty hall. It took her a couple of knocks before she heard someone grumble and stir. Corda could hear them shuffling around before the door opened a crack.

"What?" Nolan looked ready to stab Corda to death before surprise overcame his features. "Corda? What are you doing here? It's three in the morning."

"I know, but I need to talk to you."

"Couldn't you have talked to me at dinner?" Nolan rubbed his eyes, sounding slightly petulant.

Corda kept her voice neutral and unaccusing as she replied, "You were with someone, and from what I hear, you'll be with her again later today." Nolan looked a bit guilty, and Corda continued, "In any case, I checked out Alexis's story, and there are chambers beneath Dawno's office. They also seem to be exactly as she described: no sound escapes, but everything said in the office can be heard."

"Really?" Nolan looked thoughtful. "That really doesn't seem practical."

"It does if you consider that he'll likely use them for your confrontation with Bart. He'd be able to goad each of you on without having to worry about the commotion any fighting would create."

"Now that does make sense. He must have a way of surveying those rooms, in that case..." Nolan looked at Corda expectantly.

She shook her head. "If there is, I couldn't find any sign of it. I only had enough time to scout out the first few chambers before Dawno returned and killed my scouts. But I was able to learn that the walls have full shelves, so if things do end up in a fight, you'll have no shortage of ammunition."

"That's good, but your scouts?"

"The cockroaches." Nolan looked disgusted, and Corda couldn't help but giggle a little. "They may not be the most pleasing of creatures, but you must admit that they're quite good at getting into places most other things cannot."

"Perhaps, but..." He trailed off, as if to avoid offending her, which Corda appreciated.

"In any case, though I wish you'd consulted me first, teaming up with Alexis is not a bad idea. She'll be far more use in combat than I could be."

"About that, I--"

Corda cut him off with a smile and shake of the head. "I'm not upset, really. Just be careful, and while you should make use of her, don't trust her. There's something that feels off about that girl; anyone who can bear to stay in the same room as Elizabeth for as long as she has probably has a few screws of her own loose as well. Anyways, I'll let you go back to sleep." Corda stepped away from the door and began walking to the exit. "Good night."

"Good morning, you mean."

Corda shrugged and left as quietly as she had come, avoiding the staff who patrolled the grounds and maintained the curfew.

Alex Levels up and may now generate beams of heat.

Alexis Pyreta | Room B3 | Tuesday | 8:30 am | Level 1.0

"So, Mr. Wick, we meet again."

The mountain of wax sat in front of me without eyes, ears, or a mouth. But I think it had a nose. Nothing that smelled so strongly of sniff, sniff pomegranate and blueberries could not have a nose. It would be like some sort of cruel misdeed from God. So, I was sure that the wax had a nose.

And the wick on top, which was tied together with the wicks of a hundred other candles, curved over at the top like a sad willow tree. Leaning forward on my knees, I pressed my hands into the lumpy purple glob and tried to shape it up a bit. It was hard to move while it was cold, but I had set a strict goal for myself: Don't use any power on the molding.

So I didn't. And I was so proud of myself. I sat back on my knees and looked at my work of art, still all lumpy and wop-sided in its funky glory. I fidgeted a bit with my headphones in my ears and the music became louder, and the quiet in the room grew...quieter.

I was pretty grateful that, for one reason or another, Liz had left earlier that morning. It was easy to lose track of time when I didn't have someone swooning around the room, looking at my candles. In fact, it had been an agreement between the two of us girls that I was allowed to have my candles and she was allowed to dance.

We made an odd pair, but it seemed to work. At least for then.

But my focus came back to Mr. Wick and the faint fuchsia color my fingers were turning. One...last...movement...and...

There.

Proudly, Mr. Wick stood on his pedestal, surrounded by a hundred little tea light candles, emptied into the amorphous growth that was his left arm. So, leaving Mr. Wick behind, I backed away as far as I could, back to the window where my computer sat on my desk. I crouched beneath the desk and held out my left pointer finger, holding it out towards Mr. Wick with it level with my eye, like a gun.

"Say your prayers, Mr. Wick."

It was a quick shock of energy, but the tiny cinders flew through my veins and shot out of my pointer finger in a tiny, focused ray that shot over, over, over and beside Mr. Wick's head. The door behind him sizzled and blackened in a tiny spot the side of a penny. I bit down on my purple lips and aimed again, pleading my apologies to whoever had made the doors.

So I aim, aim, aimed at Mr. Wick and fired once more, feeling the hot flash back on me as his head lit up, making his purple cranium glow.

I smiled and knelt back in front of him, leaning down to kiss the flame out. "Sleep well, friend."

I focused, dropping one, two, three, four, five, six tiny fireballs into his mouth and watched his body melt down and pour into the candle holders like they'd never been touched.

Bart- 9:05- Tuesday- Basic Classes- C block

"Welcome to Power channeling and manipulation," Fedora said. He had been asleep in his chair when I arrived, and one of the students had to wake him. "Here you will learn both theory, and practice of your powers. How to use them both with force and strategy." He scanned the class, we had each picked our own seats, and I ended up alone in the corner. Bolt was silently eating my hair. "Now, today I will be getting to know you, and your abilities. So, who wants to go first?"

No one answered. Most of us were beginners, we didn't really know how to even use out powers yet. After a minute or so, Fedora finally just grabbed the list. "Mr. Bishop, how about you?"

I raised my head, which had been down, my eyes looking through a small hole between my arms. I gave a big yawn, gave a thumbs up, and then got up. Bolt jumped up in down one my head, he usually wasn't this obvious, and people didn't even notice him in my jungle of spikes. The teacher reached and plucked Bolt from my head, examining him with a far off look. "What is this...thing?"

"His name is Bolt," I said. "And he is my pet/battery/savior. When I was born, my body was going to, basically, explode, due to my powers. So, somehow, they were able to use this little guy to suck it out." Fedora nodded slowly, and placed Bolt on the table next to him. "No help," he said.

Time to shine. Literally. "My power is Electricity, and speed. My mom is Elle Bishop, my dad, you might know him as, well he goes by a lot of names-"

"Mr. Bishop, we do not need your life story, just state your powers, and show us a demonstration of your abilities."

I nodded. I had already said what I could do, so show time. I shook my hands quickly, and then with cackling crack, my hands lite up with a bright, blue light. I placed my hands parallel each other and a bright bridge of jabbed bolts erupted. I looked to Fedora, who was casually watching, and gave him a sly smile. I twisted my arms around, and sent the pillar out like a wind mill. It didn't last long though, about two seconds after it left my body, it faded away from existence. "And I don't think you really need to see super speed." I returned to my seat, a bit ashamed of my lack of power. But I hoped that after a few more kids, I would still be the best so far.

Nolan Lehnsherr - 9AM, Tuesday, Dorm Block B

He'd stayed awake all night, thinking about what Corda said to him. And now he was outside her door again, just like he was yesterday. Nolan shifted Liam around his neck. Thank God the snake had recovered. If not...Well, Nolan didn't know what he would do.

Liam being alive had to count with Corda, right?

He knocked on her door. "Corda? It's me, Nolan."

His throat was dry. What was he supposed to do? To say? Was he supposed to apologize? She said it was okay, but her face told him differently. He shouldn't have assumed she was angry at him at once. He should have waited for her to tell him so.

But then again, he didn't expect anyone to just go around saying, "I'm angry at you." Nolan sighed and almost ran a hand through his hair. Then he remembered that he'd touched the door, and that his gloves were likely infected.

"Corda, I'm sorry. I thought you wouldn't want to be my friend anymore." God why was he so stupid?

Arthur-Tuesday-12:00pm-The remains of the dorm

I don't believe it has took me an hour to get here! I am sick to the teeth of people asking me "Are you ok?" and "How did you do it?". Anyway now that I am here, I have to wait another ten minuites to go in! It makes me so angry! The Janitor has basically told me to sit here and wait for the room to "regrow". Still, it does look cool, the way that the wallpaper is crawling up the wall.
"You can go in, now",the Janitor, gruffly. I walk in. The room is exactly how I first saw it on the first day. Wierd. I change my top and jeans and sit on the bed for a while. Oh no there's a book on the floor! Pick it up on the shelf! Pick it up on the shelf! Why is it floating on its own? Why is it floating towards the shelf?
"The room sort of refixes itself and everything in it", says the Janitor, making me jump.
"How did you get in here?", I ask.
"Thats for me to know and you to find out", he replies.
"Don't worry, I will", I say.

When he leaves the room, I get a book from the shelf, Poe, Selected Tales, it's called.

Caroline. 9:15. Basic Classes. C Block.

"Who wants to go next?" Fedora asked. No one volunteered, although quite a few more had not made a demonstration yet. After the first demonstration, people had been eager to step forward, trying to show each other up. We had run out of people who wanted to show off, I supposed. I was still wary of my own powers, until I could learn to control them. I knew I'd have to demonstrate at some point, but I didn't want to step forward to humiliate myself.

I sat in a chair in the back row of the classroom, trying to disappear into the background. "Well, then. If no one's going to volunteer, I'll just have to pick you at random."

"Please not me, please not me," I muttered to myself as his eyes went over all of the students. They came to a rest on me, and I cursed in my head. "You. Would you like to come forward?"

"Sure,' I said, and stood. People craned their necks to look at me as I walked past, and I tried to look confident. "What's your name?" he asked with a smile.

I smiled back, even though I knew he was just trying to warm me up. "Caroline."

"And what are your powers?"

"Weather manipulation, mostly."

"Okay. Show us what you can do." He smiled again and nodded his head.

I closed my eyes and tried to focus my attention into one place. My thoughts kept scattering, though. I was too anxious, and this made me slip up. "Are you all right, Caroline?" came the teacher's voice.

"Uh huh," I said.

I took a breath and struggled harder, trying to draw some energy into the room, but nothing would come to me. I felt the tension in my body rise as I became frustrated with myself, and people started muttering behind me, their words inaudible.

Someone called out, "Are you sure you're at the right school? This place is for people who actually have powers."

My face began to flush as I spun around. I heard several people cry out, and I knew my eyes had gone pure white, like they did when I finally managed to bring the energy together. This wasn't what I wanted, though. My anger had sent it out of control. A huge gust of wind swept through the room. Everything that wasn't held down by the students flew from the desks and whirled in the air as people screamed.

"Caroline," the teacher yelled. "Stop."

I did my best to pull the energy back inside myself, and the wind died down. I turned back to the teacher to see his things scattered all over the floor. I started forward to pick them up. "I'm sorry," I said. "When people make me angry, I just can't-"

"I can get those in a second," he said. "And don't feel too bad about it. You were provoked. Maybe certain people should take it as a warning not to insult anyone around this school. You never know what they're capable of." He glared at someone behind me, and I nodded. I turned and went back to my seat without looking at anyone else, hoping they would forget about this. "Who would like to go next?"

I sat down and ignored anyone trying to catch my attention, staring down at the desk. I couldn't hide my shame at having lost control in front of so many people. In my tribe, they had taught self-discipline and control. Here, I could barely control myself for ten minutes. The place had set me off-balance. I looked at the other person in the back row, Bart. He was grinning in my direction, but I couldn't tell whether he was laughing at me, or playing a different game. I pondered this while everyone else picked up their papers.

Corda - Room B1 - Tuesday - 9:00 AM

Corda was sleeping in. She had no classes today, and since she hadn't gone to sleep until well past three in the morning, she figured she was well within her rights to sleep until noon. The knocking at her door put a rather unhappy end to that plan.

"Corda? It's me, Nolan."

Corda groaned into her pillow. What did more did Nolan want? She'd given him all the information she had on the chambers, and she was so tired... it was tempting to ignore him. So she did, rolling over onto her belly and pulling the pillow over her head and ears.

Despite her feathery insulation, Corda still heard Nolan say, "I'm sorry." For what, she wondered. "I thought you wouldn't want to be my friend anymore."

Oh. That. Now she had to get up, if only to set him straight. What had she ever done to make him think that?

Corda rolled out of bed with a sigh and shuffled to the door, hugging her pillow to her chest. She knew she looked terribly disheveled, but she was too tired to care. Maybe Nolan would get the visual message and leave her be to sleep? She hoped so.

Corda opened the door and yawned into her pillow. "You can be really silly sometimes, Nolan."

Bart has leveled up! He is now faster!(Amazing, huh?)

Bart-Tuesday 9:25-Class Block C

I lazily scanned the room, smiling slyly, I wasn't sure if I should laugh, or try and help. I choose neither. I was about to get up and whip up a Bart-nado, but before I got the chance, I saw her. Caroline, the girl who had cause the whole mess, was sitting down and staring at me. Her eyes were in a weirdly deep gaze, as if she was trying to read my mind. Weirdo. After the chaos had gone away, I forgot about her. Looking at the pathetic, impressive, and funny mix of powers in this class. Then I went to check the clock, and saw Caroline still staring at me. It was getting creepy.

I casually kept my gaze on the clock, as my eyes shot to her for nano seconds at a time. It was part of my power to register stuff with even the shortest look, so it wasn't much of a problem. After some time of staring at her and the clock, she finally turned her gaze to follow mine. Perfect chance. I wasn't sure if I wanted to just scare her a bit, or find out what she was doing, but it didn't matter. I was at her desk before I knew I had wanted to be there. She turned around, after realizing there was nothing behind her but a clock, and her eyes, I swear on my grave, nearly popped out of her head in fear. "WHAT THE HECK!?!?!?!" screamed as she plummeted to the ground. Every head turned to the scene. Caroline breathed heavily, staring at me in fear.

"Back to class, class," the teacher said after a minute. Every head slowly turned back to the dull demo in front of us. Puddle boy, the amazing hero who can melt into a pile of goop. Real heroic. Caroline slowly got up, not sure if I was safe to be around. "Don;t worry, I don’t bite," I said. "Sorry about that. I saw you staring at me, and it was giving me the creeps, so I wanted to know why you were doing it. So after awhile, when you finally looked away, I hopped over. Hoping that if I got you when you were going to stare again, I might get a clear response. So, can you answer my question please? Please? Oh and b the way, I'm Bart. Though I said that earlier. Caroline, right? So, be nice if you would talk, or I will keep blabbering on, and on and on, an-"

"SHUT UP!" came a collective shout from the rest of the class. It was strangely harmonic, angelic anger, if you will. "Alright. Alright." I said, my hands raised in surrender.

I turned back to Caroline, who probably was another person to take off my friendly-(ish) class mates list. Eh, who cares? "You were acting weird. Plus there is a lizard walking in your hair. Its hard not to stare at." Ah, right, probably was over reacting. But with all my battle wounds from other student already, it was a well deserved paranoia.

I returned to my seat, and put Bolt in my pocket. He might not like it, but I would rather him be peeved then become bald at twenty-three. After that, I think I fell asleep. The hard thing about sleep is, you’re not awake to know if you were sleeping. If that makes sense.

I remember Fadora talking about Super Power theory, something about Kenny's energy, and Jean Eidetic. Probably got that wrong. Now I am sure I was asleep for this, because when I woke up, it was twenty past eleven, and the Janitor was waking me. Telling me I wasn't allowed in the room with out a teacher.

My stomach rumbled, so I decided to run over to the Café. I only had a few hours till the meeting, and with the vibes I was getting from Dawno, it might end up with a fight. Better to be in it on a full stomach. That’s when something came back to me. Nolan had said something, at the time I thought it was just him being sarcastic, but after it had come back, it made all too much sense, Dawno was a Pedophile. I mean, the dude was too creepy, but it wasn’t just that. He was just…well so far we had been in the “real” part of school for two days, and he already seemed to have talked and in some cases stalked, most of our class. Even on the first day he was hanging around us, when no other teachers were, acting all…well creepy. Zeke had better come and back me up.

I Needed my weapon though. The idea had hit me during class, when Fadora had told me not to use Bolt. Bolt was a battery for me, gave me boosts in power. But there were other, far superior, chargers I could use. I had seen Ash Ketchum’s kid around the familiar pen on the first week, he had a lot to do there. So I figured it be a good idea to go an see him.

“Hey, Red!” I called out, hiding behind a pole. Red, Ash’s kid, turned to look. I grabbed some feed, and chucked it over his head. Before it even got out of my hand, the beast behind me charged after it. You could always trust an Arcanine to want a treat. Red turned tail and ran for the hills at the site, I had hit my mark though, and Red had got his hood full of feed. Red was gone, his Pokeballs forgotten in the stable. Each of the balls had a simple mark on them, to indicate the type of them. I looked for a little lightning bolt, and grabbed the thing. Hopefully his Pikachu, or whatever his electric type was, would be a good fit for me. And would trust me, for that matter.

Now I was truly hungry, so I headed to the café, for real.

Nolan Lehnsherr - Room B1 - Tuesday, 9.10 AM (Level 2.6)

"You can be really silly sometimes, Nolan."

She didn't particularly look like hell...more like his second stepfather having a hangover. Her eyes were droopy and she didn't look the least bit happy.

Nolan bit his lip and took a half-step backward. This was new. He never saw anyone looking like they just woke up, and neither did he ever meet anyone who told him he was silly. Nolan Lehnsherr? Silly? Pfft. Nolan Lehnsherr was the most charming teenager anyone had ever met.

...Right? Everything he'd been through for the last 17 years had been challenged in this school, and so far the most difficult person to deal with was Corda.

Nolan felt his stomach tie itself over and over again. Liam tightened around his owner's arm. Maybe...maybe no one ever really liked him for simply being Nolan. Maybe they all fell for Nolan's smooth lies.

"Nolan, I never said I didn't want to be your friend anymore."

He'd made a mistake. He never made a mistake. RIGHT? He felt like a little boy again. A little boy who didn't know anything at all. And he hated the feeling. So vulnerable.

And he came to a conclusion, although it was a terrible one. Alexis might not like him because he was Nolan, but rather because he persuaded her to at one point or another. The only people whose feelings weren't persuaded by Nolan's lies were Corda and...Bart.

Bart. Did that mean Nolan was actually friends with Bart in his own weird way? Wait - what? Nolan? Friends with a pervert?

Damn it he was confusing himself. He had to stop thinking too much into this. But he couldn't. He just couldn't.

He had to stop lying involuntarily. Had to choose his words better. After all, Bart could have been an ally if Nolan didn't lie that first time. And Dawno would have never caught on to Nolan if Nolan didn't persuade others so easily.

"I can't help it."

Corda raised an eyebrow. "What? Nolan, are you okay?"

Nolan bit his tongue. Great. He was being more stupid today. "Never mind. I'll make it up to you. Later. Lunch. We need to talk." Yeah, because that sounded so much better Nolan.

Her lips quirked into a smile. "You know," she paused and yawned, "you remind me of this guy from my old school."

...

Nolan was awkward. Just like every other teenager. He was awkward without his powers of persuasion.

"I've never seen you lack so much confidence, Nolan. It doesn't suit you. You're right. We need to talk about this. Later. At lunch." And with that she slammed the door in his face.

It was only then that he realized he also had a date with Alexis for lunch.

...Crap.

Zeke [Level up! 1: Can use Spin Dash]
C-Block
9:34am, Tuesday, Week 1

"Ok, how about the rat kid next?" the teacher said. What rat kid?
Zeke looked aroung the class. No one looked anything like a rat. He turned back to the teacher, who was looking directly at him.
"Me?"
"Yeah, the green rat. Who's your ancestor, Splinter? Get on up here and show us some powers."

Zeke stumbled to the front of the class again. He didn't even have any powers. Aside from speed.
"I can run fast. Like Bart," Zeke muttered. "But unlike Bart, I can't manipulate energy and stuff."
"Well, show us that then, Ratman."

Zeke seethed, but did a few laps around the room within a matter of seconds. As he entered the last stretch of his third lap, he wondered how fast he'd been going during his brief transformation into Super Zeke, and grinned. The night before, he'd been thumbing through some pictures of Sonic that he'd brought from home, and there was one of his simpler moves that Zeke had wanted to try out for a while now. He skidded to a halt before rounding the last corner, rolled himself into a ball, and began spinning on the spot. Hedgehogs were known to roll up when they sensed danger, and some of the class began laughing. Let 'em laugh at this, Zeke thought and released, rolling faster than he'd ever run and slamming straight into the opposite wall.

He climbed to his feet. Some students were still laughing, but most looked like they were awed at his speed. Even Bart looked impressed. He staggered groggily back to his seat next to Kiat (he had slammed his head a little hard).
"I see it now," the teacher said, eyes still on Zeke. "Not Splinter... Sonic, right?"
Zeke nodded, still in a daze. It was just now, feeling his head, that he realised his spinning like a circular saw had all but shredded the bandage around his eye. Didn't seem like he still needed it anyway.
"Well., you should probably save that stuff for Speed Training. How about you, the bubble thing next to him? What can you do?"


2:30pm

These are pretty good chilli dogs. Nothin' like Mom's though...
Zeke vaguely took in the movement around him. He'd taken a nap after Fedora's class to try to offset the headache, and though his head didn't hurt anymore he was still really tired. The food was helping a lot though.
He saw this guy, Red Ketchum, in front of him. He was messing about with one of those animal things he had, a big dog that breathed fire. He thought at first how weird it was, then figured it probably thought the same of him. It was eating something large and meaty out of the boy's hand.

"Hey, Red!"
Before Zeke could turn around, another meaty chunk flew over Red's head and the dog took off after it, with Red in hot pursuit. The next second, Bart was perusing the trainer's table, grabbing one of the balls on there and taking off again. Zeke jumped to his feet, scoffed the rest of his lunch and was after him quickly.

"So do you steal stuff at home too?" he called out as he got nearer to Bart. "Or do you just have a penchant for round things?"
Bart slowed down as he reached the cafeteria line. "Calm down, Ratman."
Zeke growled at the name.
"I'm just borrowing it for our fight this afternoon. I'll take it back later, tell him I found it somewhere."
"And, uh, why are you borrowing some guy's balls?"
Zeke waited for Bart to stop laughing. "Seriously. Is that thing magical or something?"
"You don't know how these things work, huh?" Bart grinned. "You'll see. We'll both get a real kick out of it - just in very different ways."

Bart took his burger and drink off the counter and checked his watch.
"We've got twenty minutes before 3:00. Which, of course, gives us about nineteen minutes and fifty-nine seconds to relax."

Alex | B-Block | 9:00am | Level 1.1

My hands were too shaky for this.

With a brush clamped between my teeth, I balanced myself half-way on the counter top and peered into the mirror, which was a horrible choice in mirrors for a girl's room. I had been warned on day 1 that half of the dorm bathrooms had trick mirrors taken from Fedora's class. In this mirror, my eyes were twice their normal size, but at least they seemed to shine.

In my hand was an absolute cop-out for a fire adept: a flat-iron. Hesitantly, I ran the iron down the near reaches of my bangs, grabbing the brush to get them juuuust right. And the heat was rising in the room, but the mirror didn't fog.

It took ages, and I wondered how some girls did it every single day, but I did it. I completely straightened out my hair. It didn't look like a wildfire anymore as much as... well... It didn't remind me of anything but scarlet red hair, burned to a crisp by an evil device.

But the outcome... It looked normal, almost.

Liz had advised me to put multiple shades of black in, but I liked the off-beat shade of my hair, and the way it always--whenever straight or spiky--let my bangs cover one of my eyes. It was all part of my shell act.

That, and...I had heard a rumor that Nolan was fond of straight hair. If that was the case, then I hoped I could at least buy more time with him than our lunch date.

Is that what all this is about?

I froze, dropping the 300-degree flatiron into the sink.

Hsssssssssszzzzzz.

"N-No... You're not here."

So you're calling yourself crazy now?

I backed away from the mirror, watching my wild green eyes almost blaze with fury against her voice.

'Her' voice? You forgotten my name so swiftly, have you Alex?

My hands shook; my leather boots squeaked against the fake tile floor.

Say it with me:

"Ar-de-a."

But it was my eyes, not my moving lips, that scared me. Mascara began to run down my cheeks; my hands clenched into fists, and I began to fight for my mind. Behind the waterfall of scarlet hair, my eyes began to burn.

"y-Ah...Let go of me...!"

And her constraint on my movements tightened, pulling fire out of my veins and onto my fingertips.

Looks like you've learned something new while that lust toy of yours was distracting you...

Slowly, I was doubling over, clawing against my stomach to stop the burning. It was punishment for being distracted.

Let's show the school this new spark of yours...

Tears began to fall, violently boiling on the floor before evaporating. One of my arms flung out towards the mirror, releasing a blast of heat at the mirror. The shards flew in all directions, twisted and molten into their silvery origin.

"Ardea..."

Shut up.

She hoisted my body up off the floor and took me out of the bathroom. I struggled to stop her, but her power had grown as well. I coughed and gagged, grasping at my burning stomach, but followed her from the room into the hallway. I fought against her, and I was sure on the outside that I looked inebriated, but I had to stop her before she got to--...

That smell.

Just knowing he was near... That beautiful mind of his... I jerked back against Ardea and found my back against the window to the southern courtyard. With boiling tears in my eyes, I did what I had to do to get her as far away from Nolan as possible, and it would take losing my time with him. I flung a fist into the window and shoved myself out of it, landing two floors below on my right arm in the wet grass.

You're going to kill yourself for him...

"I'll just kill you."

I jerked to the side, gagging and coughing against her control before voiding my insides on the courtyard grass, closing my eyes as the burning instantly stopped.

I had control. I had to run.

There would be someone on campus who could deal with her, make her stop. But who?


Alex Pyreta | C-Block | 2:37

"You are aware of what you are doing, then?"

I couldn't bring my eyes to look at him, much less speak.

"She is the epicenter of your powers... The raw essence of your psyenergy."

I kept my eyes on the black floor like a stubborn child.

"It will be sad to watch your friend Mr. Lehnsherr fall in combat by your hands."

"Promise me he will not be harmed."

"We'll make promises later, Ms. Pyreta. For now, let's tend to that nasty pseudo-persona of yours, eh?"

I finally looked up, tears still in my eyes. Dawno was grinning. That twisted son of a ja-...

"Na-ah-ahh..." He waved a finger at me. I blinked several times and backed against the desk behind me.

"H-Help me..." I surrendered, withholding a wince as he placed a hand on my shoulder and took me down the stairwell into the Silence Room.

Bart|Tuesday 2:40| Cafeteria

"come on Zeke, relax. Even rats deserve to loosen up," I said aloft. I could tell he hated being called a rat. Whoops. "So, let's kick back, enjoy some good food, and then we can think of our plan while we run to the office, Kay?" Zeke looked away, but I knew he agreed. I got some more food, and scarfed down all the carbs, sugar, and anything energy drinkish I could find. Nolan wouldn't get me to go boom with all of this stuff in me.

Zeke only poked at a chili dog, which looked terribly unappetizing, to me at least. After I felt like I was about to burst, I finally stopped stuffing my face, I saw Zeke give a look of relief. I ate like a wild boar. Bolt then went and licked up the scraps, which was a buffet of its own. We still were left with a whole four minutes and 59 seconds to spare. "So, you really don;t know what this thing is?" I asked, spinning the plain, red and white ball on my finger.

"No," he replied simply. "How do you?"

"Bolt, sort of. I had to go to the familiar pen my first day, and so, I bumped into that Red kid. He told me all about it," I explained. "It...let's just say it relates to me, on a level of epicly-awesome-coolness."

Zeke gave me a look that said "This dude needs to pop his ego." "But whatever, Zeke. I'm gonna go grab something from my dorm real quick," I said. He gave me a worried look. "No I am not going to steal it. It belongs to me."

I bolted before he could say another word, or rather give another look. If I was going to go into battle, I wasn't going to go in alone. Weather that meant physically, or spiritually. Kumo wasn't there, so I was able to dig around with no worry. "Mom, Great-Great Granddaddy, I'll need you today." I pulled a necklace over my head, it was a small glass ball, filled with a spark, I had had it since I was born, and it had never died. The next one was a little less personal, but it was still important to me. It was an old-style messenger hat, the kind you saw in the old Greek myths. It was bronze, with little wings. It had belonged to the original Flash. Why I had it, and not his own kid, was my dad. He was a thief, a big one. From petty five-finger discounts, to banks. He had taken it, and given it to me. It might have been stained, but it was still cool. And head gear. Time to get to Dawno, with about a second to spare.

"Hey Zeke," I said, sliding, right in front of the blue spike ball. "Glad you came."

"Ah, I knew you would be here," a calm, soothing, yet slightly off, voice hummed. I turned to see Nolan coming to us.